The World Series matchup is set! What Rangers and D-backs need to do to win it all
The 2023 World Series matchup is set.
Starting Friday, the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks will clash for the Commissioner’s Trophy in a meeting of powerful lineups and dominant starting pitchers.
One night after the Rangers booked their first trip to the Fall Classic since 2011 with a Game 7 victory over the Houston Astros, the Diamondbacks continued their stunning run with a 4-2 Game 7 win in Philadelphia.
What has October taught us about each of these teams? What does each squad need to do to come out on top? And which players could be the difference-makers on both sides? ESPN MLB experts Bradford Doolittle, Alden Gonzalez, Jesse Rogers and David Schoenfield break it down.
What’s the most impressive thing about the Rangers this postseason?
Doolittle: The explosiveness of the offense is the Rangers’ standout trait, but during the playoffs what has really put them over the top is the performance of their top two starting pitchers. Simply put, Texas would not be in the World Series without the consistent performances of Jordan Montgomery and Nathan Eovaldi.
Eovaldi built upon his previous playoff reputation and has fully established himself as one of the great October pitchers of the last decade — at least. Montgomery has been almost as good (with one clunker mixed in there, in the ALDS against the Baltimore Orioles). Montgomery has become Bruce Bochy’s new “MadBum” (Madison Bumgarner), drawing a Game 7 bullpen assignment even when the Texas relief staff was fully rested and ready to go. Two starting pitchers can no longer carry a club to a championship in the way that Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling did in 2001, but what we’ve seen the Rangers’ top two do is as close to that as we are likely to get.
Gonzalez: The Rangers’ lineup is deep, but Adolis Garcia is the one who makes them go — more so than even Marcus Semien and Corey Seager, the $500 million middle-infield combo that occupies at the top of the order. Garcia has become Texas’ most dynamic player. And when he’s running hot, his energy is infectious. In his last six at-bats of the ALCS, while heckled at unimaginable levels by the Houston crowd, he homered three times and drove in nine runs, almost single-handedly ending the defending-champion Astros’ season. He has driven in 20 runs in 12 playoff games and is already just one RBI behind David Freese in 2011 for the most in a single postseason. This is a guy who just four years ago was passed over by the St. Louis Cardinals — and two years ago by the Rangers themselves, when they designated him for assignment. Amazing.
Why will it (or won’t it) work against the D-backs in the World Series?
Doolittle: Arizona has not really been carried by the performance of any particular starting pitcher or, indeed, any one thing at all. Whatever it has taken to survive in a particular series, Torey Lovullo and his team have been able to find. In Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen, Arizona does have a top two capable of staying with Eovaldi and Montgomery. There is less pressure for that duo to work deep because Lovullo has been so aggressive with his bullpen use, but if Texas continues to get long, effective starts from its big two, that will make things awful tough on Arizona. That would mean Bruce Bochy can both effectively moderate his high-leverage relievers and keep his staff fresh for when he needs to feature a steady parade of bullpen arms.
Gonzalez: Garcia’s bat has a tendency to run hot and cold. He OPS’d .790 in July and August, then .934 in September. And just before running absolutely rampant in that six-at-bat stretch to cap off a historic LCS run, he struck out four consecutive times, taking some ugly swings on a handful of occasions. In the past three seasons, only one man in all of baseball — Eugenio Suarez — compiled more strikeouts than Garcia, so highs and lows are inevitable with him. The Rangers just have to hope his surge lasts another week or so. It’s a really small sample size, of course, but Garcia was only 2-for-17 with five strikeouts against the D-backs this season, including a combined 0-for-7 showing against Zac Gallen and Brandon Pfaadt (he did not face Merrill Kelly).
Who is the one player who must deliver for the Rangers to be champs from here?
Doolittle: Our perception of who needs to get going during the playoffs can change so rapidly. Corbin Carroll, who looked like he was a budding playoff superstar during the first round against the Brewers, mostly struggled in the NLCS, then went wild in Game 7. Corey Seager, the best player in the playoffs during the Rangers’ early games, struggled throughout the ALCS — then went wild in Game 7. So you just don’t know how rapidly this picture will change.
One player who has been consistent for the Rangers throughout October is Marcus Semien — but not in a good way. It’s hard to imagine the Rangers finishing this run off without Semien starting to book some better offensive results. Semien seemed to have better swings and approach in the last two games against Houston, and if that’s a precursor to him breaking out in the World Series, look out. The rest of the Rangers lineup seems to be in fine fettle — if Semien gets going, there is nowhere for opposing pitchers to hide.
Gonzalez: This one is easy: Jose Leclerc. Those who haven’t been following the Rangers this postseason might not be all that familiar with him, but he has become their go-to closer and most important reliever. The Rangers have navigated this entire year with a shaky bullpen, and as the stakes have continually ratcheted up, it has become clear that Bochy trusts very few pitchers with close leads late. One of those is certainly Josh Sborz. And perhaps the only other one is Leclerc, who has converted almost as many saves this postseason (three) as he did throughout the entire regular season (four). The 29-year-old right-hander was really good this year, with a 2.68 ERA and 67 strikeouts – though also 28 walks – in 67 innings. He can provide more than one inning, and he’ll undoubtedly be called on to do that in the World Series.
What’s the most impressive thing about the D-backs this postseason?
Rogers: Everything? But really, it’s been their ability to adjust on the fly — whether that’s to a raucous crowd, a slumping player or a struggling reliever. They’ve mixed and matched all over the place, and they have a manager who is willing to put his neck on the line. Simply put, they’ve maxed out on moments to get them where they are. Whatever you think of the matchup, it would be unwise to anoint the Rangers after what the D-backs have done this postseason. Every part of their roster helped get them to this point. There’s no reason that will change now.
Schoenfield: That they’ve made it this far even though their stars haven’t really carried the load. After a hot start to the postseason — 6-for-12 with two home runs in his first three games — Corbin Carroll was a non-factor until busting out in the finale of the NLCS with three hits, two runs, two stolen bases and a sac fly. The Diamondbacks lost both of Zac Gallen’s starts against the Phillies. Christian Walker, who led the team with 33 home runs, had two hits and drove in two runs in the NLCS. And yet, somehow they won all three of the non-Gallen/non-Merrill Kelly games, when everyone figured the only way for them to upset the Phillies was to have Gallen and Kelly dominate. Up is down, left is right, nothing about this team in the postseason really adds up — but they’re still playing baseball.
Why will it (or won’t it) work against the Rangers in the World Series?
Rogers: Now that they’ve gotten this far, why would anyone say the D-backs can’t keep doing their thing all the way to a title? This is a team that seems to have a different hero every game. And here’s another key to the D-backs success: They’re hitting home runs this postseason. That was a huge question mark coming into October. They’ve sprinkled in just enough to keep the opposition honest. In fact, it’s Alek Thomas — a part time starter — who leads them with four. It’s hard to imagine a conventional series win — there would have to be some grinding moments — but Arizona could pull off another shocker.
Schoenfield: It seems unlikely, doesn’t it? You can only rely so much on Brandon Pfaadt or Alek Thomas, and Ketel Marte can’t be the only player to consistently produce on offense. Then again, the Diamondbacks took advantage of the Phillies’ biggest weakness — Craig Kimbrel — to win Games 3 and 4, and it’s not like the Rangers have a lockdown late-game bullpen either as closer Jose Leclerc has been sketchy and also worked hard this postseason. But all you have to do is out-win the opponent over seven games, not outscore them.
Still, it feels like the keys will once again be Gallen and Kelly. The Rangers’ lineup finished the ALCS scoring 20 runs the final two games. They have home-field advantage where their OPS in the regular season was more than 100 points higher than on the road (they hit 143 home runs at home, 90 on the road). Given the Diamondbacks will have to rely have heavily on the bullpen in Games 3 and 4 and then again in Game 7 if it goes that far, it’s important that Gallen and Kelly also give them some length.
Who is the one player who must deliver for the D-backs to be champs from here?
Rogers: Gabriel Moreno. It might sound dramatic to choose a rookie catcher, but his impact on the Diamondbacks right now can’t be overstated. He’s been moved up in the lineup and now will need to call another great series against an offensive powerhouse. It’s so much to ask — but it has been every round, and he keeps coming through. Don’t forget his rocket arm, either — the Rangers didn’t run a lot during the regular season, but they have that tool in their toolbox. If Moreno can keep doing exactly what he’s doing, he’ll be a big reason the Diamondbacks have a shot at this.
Schoenfield: Carroll. They’re going to have to score runs to beat the Rangers, which means they’ll need production from someone besides Marte at the top of the order. Until Game 7, when he seemed more himself, Carroll looked a little overmatched against the Phillies until his big Game 7, and perhaps the fatigue of the long season has caught up to him. His groundball rate has gone from 45% in the regular season to 55% in the postseason (and 65% in the NLCS); he’s clearly had issues driving the ball. Maybe it’s a slump — and perhaps his late breakout points to as much — but if it is fatigue, the Arizona offense might be in trouble.
JIM ABBOTT IS sitting at his kitchen table, with his old friend Tim Mead. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, they were partners in an extraordinary exercise — and now, for the first time in decades, they are looking at a stack of letters and photographs from that period of their lives.
The letters are mostly handwritten, by children, from all over the United States and Canada, and beyond.
“Dear Mr. Abbott …”
“I have one hand too. … I don’t know any one with one hand. How do you feel about having one hand? Sometimes I feel sad and sometimes I feel okay about it. Most of the time I feel happy.”
“I am a seventh grader with a leg that is turned inwards. How do you feel about your arm? I would also like to know how you handle your problem? I would like to know, if you don’t mind, what have you been called?”
“I can’t use my right hand and most of my right side is paralyzed. … I want to become a doctor and seeing you makes me think I can be what I want to be.”
For 40 years, Mead worked in communications for the California Angels, eventually becoming vice president of media relations. His position in this department became a job like no other after the Angels drafted Abbott out of the University of Michigan in 1988.
There was a deluge of media requests. Reporters from around the world descended on Anaheim, most hoping to get one-on-one time with the young left-handed pitcher with the scorching fastball. Every Abbott start was a major event — “like the World Series,” Angels scout Bob Fontaine Jr. remembers. Abbott, with his impressive amateur résumé (he won the James E. Sullivan Award for the nation’s best amateur athlete in 1997 and an Olympic gold medal in 1988) and his boyish good looks, had star power.
That spring, he had become only the 16th player to go straight from the draft to the majors without appearing in a single minor league game. And then there was the factor that made him unique. His limb difference, although no one called it that back then. Abbott was born without a right hand, yet had developed into one of the most promising pitchers of his generation. He would go on to play in the majors for ten years, including a stint in the mid ’90s with the Yankees highlighted by a no-hitter in 1993.
Abbott, and Mead, too, knew the media would swarm. That was no surprise. There had been swarms in college, and at the Olympics, wherever and whenever Abbott pitched. Who could resist such an inspirational story? But what they hadn’t anticipated were the letters.
The steady stream of letters. Thousands of letters. So many from kids who, like Abbott, were different. Letters from their parents and grandparents. The kids hoping to connect with someone who reminded them of themselves, the first celebrity they knew of who could understand and appreciate what it was like to be them, someone who had experienced the bullying and the feelings of otherness. The parents and grandparents searching for hope and direction.
“I know you don’t consider yourself limited in what you can do … but you are still an inspiration to my wife and I as parents. Your success helps us when talking to Andy at those times when he’s a little frustrated. I’m able to point to you and assure him there’s no limit to what he can accomplish.”
In his six seasons with the Angels, Abbott was assisted by Mead in the process of organizing his responses to the letters, mailing them, and arranging face-to-face meetings with the families who had written to him. There were scores of such meetings. It was practically a full-time job for both of them.
“Thinking back on these meetings with families — and that’s the way I’d put it, it’s families, not just kids — there was every challenge imaginable,” Abbott, now 57, says. “Some accidents. Some birth defects. Some mental challenges that aren’t always visible to people when you first come across somebody. … They saw something in playing baseball with one hand that related to their own experience. I think the families coming to the ballparks were looking for hopefulness. I think they were looking for what it had been that my parents had told me, what it had been that my coaches had told me. … [With the kids] it was an interaction. It was catch. It was smiling. It was an autograph. It was a picture. With the parents, it ran deeper. With the parents, it was what had your parents said to you? What coaches made a difference? What can we expect? Most of all, I think, what can we expect?”
“It wasn’t asking for autographs,” Mead says of all those letters. “They weren’t asking for pictures. They were asking for his time. He and I had to have a conversation because this was going to be unique. You know, you could set up another player to come down and sign 15 autographs for this group or whatever. But it was people, parents, that had kids, maybe babies, just newborn babies, almost looking for an assurance that this is going to turn out all right, you know. ‘What did your parents do? How did your parents handle this?'”
One of the letters Abbott received came from an 8-year-old girl in Windsor, Ontario.
She wrote, “Dear Jim, My name is Tracey Holgate. I am age 8. I have one hand too. My grandpa gave me a picture of you today. I saw you on TV. I don’t know anyone with one hand. How do you feel about having one hand? Sometimes I feel sad and sometimes I feel okay about it. Most of the time I feel happy. I hope to see you play in Detroit and maybe meet you. Could you please send me a picture of you in uniform? Could you write back please? Here is a picture of me. Love, Tracey.”
Holgate’s letter is one of those that has remained preserved in a folder — and now Abbott is reading it again, at his kitchen table, half a lifetime after receiving it. Time has not diminished the power of the letter, and Abbott is wiping away tears.
Today, Holgate is 44 and goes by her married name, Dupuis. She is married with four children of her own. She is a teacher. When she thinks about the meaning of Jim Abbott in her life, it is about much more than the letter he wrote back to her. Or the autographed picture he sent her. It was Abbott, all those years ago, who made it possible for Tracey to dream.
“There was such a camaraderie there,” she says, “an ability to connect with somebody so far away doing something totally different than my 8-year-old self was doing, but he really allowed me to just feel that connection, to feel that I’m not alone, there’s other people that have differences and have overcome them and been successful and we all have our own crosses, we all have our own things that we’re carrying and it’s important to continue to focus on the gifts that we have, the beauty of it.
“I think sometimes differences, disabilities, all those things can be a gift in a package we would never have wanted, because they allow us to be people that have an empathetic heart, an understanding heart, and to see the pain in the people around us.”
Now, years after Abbott’s career ended, he continues to inspire.
Among those he influenced, there are professional athletes, such as Shaquem Griffin, who in 2018 became the first NFL player with one hand. Griffin, now 29, played three seasons at linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks.
Growing up in Florida, he would watch videos of Abbott pitching and fielding, over and over, on YouTube.
“The only person I really looked up to was Jim Abbott at the time,” Griffin says, “which is crazy, because I didn’t know anybody else to look up to. I didn’t know anybody else who was kind of like me. And it’s funny, because when I was really little, I used to be like, ‘Why me? Why this happen to me?’ And I used to be in my room thinking about that. And I used to think to myself, ‘I wonder if Jim Abbott had that same thought.'”
Carson Pickett was born on Sept. 15, 1993 — 11 days after Abbott’s no-hitter. Missing most of her left arm below the elbow, she became, in 2022, the first player with a limb difference to appear for the U.S. women’s national soccer team.
She, too, says that Abbott made things that others told her were impossible seem attainable.
“I knew I wanted to be a professional soccer player,” says Pickett, who is currently playing for the NWSL’s Orlando Pride. “To be able to see him compete at the highest level it gave me hope, and I think that that kind of helped me throughout my journey. … I think ‘pioneer’ would be the best word for him.”
Longtime professional MMA fighter Nick Newell is 39, old enough to have seen Abbott pitch for the Yankees. In fact, when Newell was a child he met Abbott twice, first at a fan event at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan and then on a game day at Yankee Stadium. Newell was one of those kids with a limb difference — like Griffin and Pickett, due to amniotic band syndrome — who idolized Abbott.
“And I didn’t really understand the gravity of what he was doing,” Newell says now, “but for me, I saw someone out there on TV that looked like I did. And I was the only other person I knew that had one hand. And I saw this guy out here playing baseball and it was good to see somebody that looked like me, and I saw him in front of the world.
“He was out there like me and he was just living his life and I think that I owe a lot of my attitude and the success that I have to Jim just going out there and being the example of, ‘Hey, you can do this. Who’s to say you can’t be a professional athlete?’ He’s out there throwing no-hitters against the best baseball players in the world. So, as I got older, ‘Why can’t I wrestle? Why can’t I fight? Why can’t I do this?’ And then it wasn’t until the internet that I heard people tell me I can’t do these things. But by then I had already been doing those things.”
Griffin.
Pickett.
Newell.
Just three of the countless kids who were inspired by Jim Abbott.
When asked if it ever felt like too much, being a role model and a hero, all the letters and face-to-face meetings, Abbott says no — but it wasn’t always easy.
“I had incredible people who helped me send the letters,” he says. “I got a lot more credit sometimes than I deserved for these interactions, to be honest with you. And that happened on every team, particularly with my friend Tim Mead. There was a nice balance to it. There really was. There was a heaviness to it. There’s no denying. There were times I didn’t want to go [to the meetings]. I didn’t want to walk out there. I didn’t want to separate from my teammates. I didn’t want to get up from the card game. I didn’t want to put my book down. I liked where I was at. I was in my environment. I was where I always wanted to be. In a big league clubhouse surrounded by big league teammates. In a big league stadium. And those reminders of being different, I slowly came to realize were never going to go away.”
But being different was the thing that made Abbott more than merely a baseball star. For many people, he has been more than a role model, more than an idol. He is the embodiment of hope and belonging.
“I think more people need to realize and understand the gift of a difference,” Dupuis says. “I think we have to just not box everybody in and allow everybody’s innate light to shine, and for whatever reasons we’ve been created to be here, [let] that light shine in a way that it touches everybody else. Because I think that’s what Jim did. He allowed his light to permeate and that light, in turn, lit all these little children’s lights all over the world, so you have this boom of brightness that’s happening and that’s uncontrollable, that’s beautiful.”
NEW YORK — Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is projected to receive the largest amount from this season’s $50 million pre-arbitration bonus pool based on his regular-season statistics.
Crow-Armstrong is on track to get $1,091,102, according to WAR calculations through July 8 that Major League Baseball sent to teams, players and agents in a memo Friday that was obtained by The Associated Press.
He earned $342,128 from the pool in 2024.
“I was aware of it after last year, but I have no clue of the numbers,” he said Friday. “I haven’t looked at it one time.”
Pittsburgh pitcher Paul Skenes is second at $961,256, followed by Washington outfielder James Wood ($863,835), Arizona outfielder Corbin Carroll ($798,397), Houston pitcher Hunter Brown ($786,838), Philadelphia pitcher Cristopher Sánchez ($764,854), Cincinnati shortstop Elly De La Cruz ($717,479), Boston catcher Carlos Narváez ($703,007), Red Sox outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela ($685,366) and Detroit outfielder Riley Greene ($665,470).
Crow-Armstrong, Skenes, Wood, Carroll, Brown, De La Cruz and Greene have been picked for Tuesday’s All-Star Game.
A total of 100 players will receive the payments, established as part of the 2022 collective bargaining agreement and aimed to get more money to players without sufficient service time for salary arbitration eligibility. The cutoff for 2025 was 2 years, 132 days of major league service.
Players who signed as foreign professionals are excluded.
Most young players have salaries just above this year’s major league minimum of $760,000. Crow-Armstrong has a $771,000 salary this year, Skenes $875,000, Wood $764,400 and Brown $807,400.
Carroll is in the third season of a $111 million, eight-year contract.
As part of the labor agreement, a management-union committee was established that determined the WAR formula used to allocate the bonuses after awards. (A player may receive only one award bonus per year, the highest one he is eligible for.) The agreement calls for an interim report to be distributed the week before the All-Star Game.
Distribution for awards was $9.85 million last year, down from $11.25 million in 2022 and $9.25 million in 2023.
A player earns $2.5 million for winning an MVP or Cy Young award, $1.75 million for finishing second, $1.5 million for third, $1 million for fourth or fifth or for making the All-MLB first team. A player can get $750,000 for winning Rookie of the Year, $500,000 for second or for making the All-MLB second team, $350,000 for third in the rookie race, $250,000 for fourth or $150,000 for fifth.
Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. topped last year’s pre-arbitration bonus pool at $3,077,595, and Skenes was second at $2,152,057 despite not making his big league debut until May 11. Baltimore shortstop Gunnar Henderson was third at $2,007,178.
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